1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a facsimile machine which has a so-called memory transmission function of once storing a plurality of documents to be transmitted in a memory and when a specified time of each document comes or a predetermined time elapses, of reading out corresponding one of the documents from the memory for its transmission, and also which has, in particular, a novel function of retrieving data of the stored documents waiting for transmission.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there has been proposed such a facsimile machine that can once store image data read out from an original document into a memory and thereafter when a call to a destination party of the document is originated and a communication line is connected with the destination party, can read out the stored image data from the memory and transmit it to the destination party. With the facsimile machine having such a memory transmission function, when a busy state or an error takes place in a specified-time transmission mode or in a document transmission mode, the facsimile machine can perform its redialing operation to again transmit the document once stored in the memory to the destination party after passage of a predetermined time. Further, in the above redialing or specified-time transmission mode, the facsimile machine can accept a plurality of documents to be transmitted in the memory and can perform the above redialing or specified-time transmission operation with respect to each of the documents.
Such a conventional facsimile machine as mentioned above, however, manages all the documents stored in the memory to be transmitted during the operation of the redialing or specified-time transmission or redialing mode. Thus, once the facsimile machine puts the documents to be transmitted under its managing operation, the operator of the facsimile machine cannot readily know whether or not desired one of the documents is now in its redialing mode and further he cannot instruct the facsimile machine to immediately transmit the redial wait document. For this reason, the conventional facsimile machine has been disadvantageous in that, once the documents to be transmitted are put under control of the facsimile machine, the operator cannot instruct the facsimile machine and thus cannot change the operation of the machine. Thus, when such a situation takes place that requires to immediately transmit the redial wait document for some reason, the conventional facsimile machine cannot cope with such a demand quickly, that is, is disadvantageously poor in its operating convenience.